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by pizzawitholives



Series: One-shots - Hobbit [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Developing Relationship, Thorin is mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23963824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pizzawitholives/pseuds/pizzawitholives
Summary: Bella is hired to work for Erebor Inc. (Mining company and makers of Jewellery.)When she stands up to Thorin one day he decides he does not like her, only upon her and Fili meeting they instantly connect. Thorin is not happy and does what he can to keep them apart. Then disaster strikes.
Relationships: Bilbo Baggins/Fíli
Series: One-shots - Hobbit [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640983
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





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**Author's Note:**

> So this got stuck in my head while I was writing the latest chapter of Contract so that may be a few more days until I update but at least I got this out and I can focus on that again.
> 
> Hope you are all keeping safe and healthy!

Thorin Durin of Erebor inc. was a very busy man. His family's company had started with his grandfather Thror opening a jewelers. His father Thrain then expanded the company to include mining. Now Erebor mined their own gems and precious metal all over the world and made their renowned jewelry with their spoils. Thorin had started to sell excess gems and metal to other companies, meaning that even their competitors were paying Erebor for supplies.

Because he was so busy and the company so large Thorin rarely was involved in the hiring process, the department managers had his full trust and could hire and fire within their department whoever they wanted. They did have to keep him apprised of all staff changes which his sister and personal assistant Dis handled. Only when hiring a management position or a manager was Thorin involved and even then he only interviewed the final round of applicants.

So when Gandalf, manager of customer relations, told him that he had just hired a young lady as his assistant Thorin paid little attention to the news, only a quick glance at her name for her company ID pass.

Bella had been glad her Godfather hired her as his assistant, she had been at university for the last 3 years studying consumerism, human relations, advertising and commercial and media trends. She could speak Italian and Sindarin and had worked from the age of 16 as a customer relations consultant for a toy company.

She needed more challenging work than running focus groups with 5 year olds. Once she had her degree Gandalf had called her with the offer to work with him at Erebor and Bella had jumped at the chance.

Now, as she was following Gandalf around the department while he introduced her to everyone, she felt unworthy. She could feel them judging her, a 22 year old girl hired by her Godfather as his assistant. 

Well, she would show them. They had a meeting that afternoon, she had plenty of time to become familiar with their current projects and to devise various strategies to help. This is what she did, she was a customer relations expert, she was top of her class at university and she was both a Baggins and a Took. She would win them over.

* * *

"Morning everyone!"

Several responses of "good morning" followed Bella as she made her way to the small conference room that was used mainly to conference call with other branches of Erebor around the world. She had a tray with several take away coffee cups and a container of homemade blueberry scones and chocolate chip cookies. After six months she had finally won over her co-workers not only because of her experience but also with her baking skills

Her Godfather was already inside with Bofur, head of Human Resources and Dwalin the head of the advertising department.

"Morning boys! I bring sustenance" Bella placed the food and drinks down on the small table in the middle of the room before dropping her back pack in one of the chairs and taking out her laptop, hooking it up the the media system and opening her presentation up.

"Morning Bella, thanks for the fuel" Dwalin grabbed his black coffee and a scone before sitting across from Bella and arranging his paper and pens. Bella found it hilarious that despite being in advertising Dwalin stuck to using pen and paper.

"Goodness Bella, these scones are amazing! Will you marry me?"

Bella let out a laugh while Gandalf and Dwalin rolled their eyes, once a fortnight Bofur would ‘propose’ at their meetings when he tried one of her baked creations.

“Bofur, I am sorry, I love you as much as I would imagine loving an older brother if I had one.” Bella gave her friend a comforting pat on the back before turning to ask Dwalin how he was.

“Ah I’m good lass”

“And how is Ori?”

“She’s doing good, she’s over being pregnant though, wanted to go for a walk this morning but her feet were swollen.”

Ori was Dwalin’s fiancee. Bella had met the other woman around two months ago, Ori had been six months pregnant and dropping lunch off for Dwalin and they had hit it off talking about the book Bella had on her desk to read during breaks.

Bella and Dwalin continued discussing the sufferings of Ori, with Bofur adding in what he had learnt from his sister-in-law’s pregnancy, while they finished off their coffee’s and baked goods and waited for the final person to arrive for their meeting. Thorin Durin. Bella had been working at Erebor Inc. for six months and had yet to meet the man in charge, from what she had heard from the men in the room he was a great guy but she was still slightly nervous to be presenting her ideas to him.

“Alright, let’s get this over with, I’ve got an early lunch to get to.”

The man, Thorin, was looking down at his phone, he looked very well put together and a little annoyed, as though this meeting was beneath him. “Alright, get to it, I’m just here to observe.”

Bella exchanged a look with Gandalf before everyone moved to take their seats.

“Alright, well, so far the marketing has been going well, however going well isn't good. We haven’t seen an increase in sales since I’ve been here, despite the various different advertisements we do and all the strategies we discuss every meeting, things aren’t changing.” Bella showed them several graphs that charted the past six months of the business’ profits, advertisements and the money they were spending. “Realistically if this were any other business we would be losing too much money to keep going. We spend way too much on the same advertising that isn’t working anymore. We need a change.”

“No, we do not need a change. We know what we are doing works, so we will keep doing it.”

“Mr Durin, with all due respect, this whole meeting, my whole presentation is to explain why we can’t keep doing the same thi....”

“With all due respect, I don't know who you are, but you don’t get to tell me what needs to be done, I am in charge, Erebor is my company and what I say goes.” getting up Thorin stalked over to the door, wrenching it open to leave.

“You are wrong” at Bella’s statement several things happened. Gandalf gained an extremely proud look. Bofur let out a sharp gasp and gave her a pitying look. Dwalin gave a resigned sigh and shook his head in despair. And Thorin, he turned slowly to face her, hand dropping from the door as he stepped towards her. She heard the door shut and looked her boss in the eye.

“We can’t keep doing things the same. Just because it seems to be working now it won’t work forever. When you first started this round of advertisement your sales jumped up 72% and for a solid month you had an increase of profit. After that month sales dropped, slowly at first which can be expected but they have been dropping steadily for the past year and if we do nothing soon, profits will drop into the yellow, and maybe 6 months later into the red.”

“And who are you, to be telling me all this?”

“She is my assistant, Belladonna Baggins, she is also my Goddaughter but she is perfectly qualified for this job. In fact I’m hoping to train her as my replacement when I retire in 3 years.”

“Thank you Gandalf. So you are a spoiled young girl who was given a job simply because you knew the right person, and you now think you have the knowledge and the right to demand people listen to you.”

Bella flinched. When she had first started everyone had believed she got the job only because of Gandalf. It had taken her a few months for everyone she interacted with to realise she had gotten the job on her own merit. Now after all her hard work Thorin Durin had reduced her to that same label.

“I am not a spoiled young girl. I am a qualified professional who got this job because she deserved it. And as a professional I am telling you that we need to change what we are doing or else everything will fail.”

“Thorin, maybe she has a point, sales have been dropping, at this point I don’t see how anything could make it worse.” Dwalin stood up, clapping his best mate on the back and giving him an imploring look.

Thorin glanced at Bofur and Gandalf, both of whom were nodding in agreement, and a glance at the presentation he had been mainly ignoring showed that sales were dropping and the girls predictions were in fact a harsh reality. Still. Things worked for a reason and to change them could harm as easily as help.

“Very well. You have 2 months to come up with a whole new advertising pitch. You will put together a team to help you and will not only pitch a commercial idea but a whole package. Billboards, posters, radio spots, several commercials, the works. After the 2 months are up you will pitch it to me and to a board of executives and we will decide whether it is worth the change.” And with one last glance at the people in the office Thorin turned and stalked out to meet his sister and nephews for lunch.

* * *

A week later found Bella looking around at everyone in the meeting room. Bofur and Dwalin were up the front with her, ready to help lead the team. She had also selected Balin and Dori, two people who she had worked with several times during her 6 months at Erebor. Dwalin had asked Bombur and Bofur had decided that no one else from HR could do much to help. It was a small team but Bella had faith in them, and Gandalf had told her that even though he wasn't involved he would lend a hand if they had need.

Before the meeting could start Thorin walked in followed by a young blond who looked to be the same age as Bella.

"Alright everyone you all know my nephew, Fili this is Belladonna Baggins, she is the one insisting we change things. Miss Baggins, this is Fili, he has recently graduated from university and is now settling in to learn how to run the business. To start with he will be my representative on this team." As polite as ever, once he had finished speaking Thorin left with only a nod at his nephew.

"Hi Fili, welcome to the team. We were just about to start so take a seat." Bella gestured to the table, ignoring the voice in her mind telling her how hot the young man was.

"Thanks miss Baggins, looking forward to helping out. Privately I agree that we need to update the marketing and advertising but my uncle is stubborn, I must say I was impressed when I heard someone stood up to Thorin, even more so now that I have met you." And with a flirtatious wink Fili sat in the chair right next to Bella.

He was friendly and warm, the complete opposite of his uncle not just in looks. And the following day when he asked if she would be interested in getting some dinner with him Bella couldn’t say no.

* * *

“I can’t believe you turned your uncle's hair pink, I would have loved to have seen that!”

They had finished dinner hours ago and rather than ordering dessert from the restaurant Bella had invited Fili to her apartment and offered to make him her secret recipe caramel brownies.

“Here, I can show you the pictures” Fili flicked through his phone, showing her several pictures of Thorin with bright pink hair and a murderous expression on his face. “He deserved it, he was ‘babysitting’ my little brother Kili and I and when we asked him if we could have ice cream for dessert he wouldn’t let us. So we dyed his hair pink.”

“How old were you guys, and how did you have access to pink hair dye?” Bella wiped tears from her eyes, getting flour on her cheek and Fili leant close to wipe it off. They stared at each other for a moment, unblinking, before both pulled back as the oven beeped “time to get these in the oven.”

Fili watched her for a moment, she really was beautiful, her auburn hair fell in soft curls to her mid back and her eyes were a beautiful green. She had a smattering of freckles across her button nose and cheeks. Her lips were slightly thin, but she was always smiling and they suited her. She was shorter than he was and at 5 foot 7 (6 ½ but who counts that) he wasn't the tallest person. At dinner she had been wearing heels and had reached his shoulders, now that they were off he could see just how short she really was, probably roughly 5 foot 1 or 2.

Fili cleared his throat before answering Bella’s question “Oh we were teenagers, I was 17 and Kili was 15. Uncle Thorin was staying with us while our parents were away for work and they didn’t trust us on our own for 2 weeks. Kili and I would normally go to the shops after school since I was driving and we’d meet up with our cousin Gimli, he’s a few years younger and went to school across the road from the shops. We’d grab some food and I’d drop Gimli home. We happened to walk past a hair dye display and it was on sale so we bought the brightest pink possible and asked the lady how to go about dying dark hair pink. She told us to bleach it first so we got some bleach and put it in uncle’s shampoo. Good news is he thought that was us getting back at him so I offered to grab him new shampoo the next day after school and found one that was for use on newly coloured hair and then some normal shampoo, that was Kili’s idea. We put the dye in the normal shampoo a couple of days later and when he woke with pink hair we told him that was the last of the prank. Kili had bleached and I had dyed and offered to get him another shampoo, with our own pocket money. That afternoon before he got home we emptied the bottle of shampoo with dye and put the special shampoo in it and left it on the bathroom counter for him with a little apology note. His hair kept getting brighter and he couldn't figure out why, it was pretty amazing.” 

Bella was laughing so hard that she wasn’t actually producing a sound anymore and she had tears streaming down her face. Fili joined her in laughter, remembering everyone’s reactions at the family dinner the following saturday. 

Bella slowly collected herself and splashed her face with cold water before looking over at him, a bright smile on her face and small giggles escaping her occasionally.

“This is honestly the most fun I’ve had on a date ever.”

Fili smiled and stepped closer, pushing her hair behind her ear “glad I could be of some assistance.” 

Slowly the two leant forward and met in a chaste kiss. Pulling back Fili smiled at Bella and leant forward again but she gasped and turned to the oven. 

Bella pulled the brownies out of the oven and put them to the side to cool down for a bit. She was blushing, she knew that Fili was watching her and she had been very close to completely giving in before the smell of smoke reminded her of the brownies.

* * *

“Right, well against my beliefs you have managed to come up with a passable idea, Miss Baggins, take some more people into your team and get started on this. We’ll give it a run and see how people respond.”

Bella watched as Thorin walked out of the meeting room before turning to her team “well done everyone! We did great. I’m so proud of us all!”

Slowly everyone left leaving just Bella and Fili in the room. Fili walked over and gave Bella a hug

“Well done babe, I knew you would be able to do it” and he bent down to give his girlfriend a kiss.

“WHAT IS THIS!”

The young couple turned to see Thorin in the doorway, glaring at them in anger.

“Mr Durin! I’m sorry, did you have a question or…” Bella trailed off, stepping away from Fili and moving to pack up her laptop, avoiding looking at either man so they would not see her blush.

"Miss Baggins, you are here to work! Not to seduce my nephew! This is unacceptable! I will have you fired from this company for this!" Thorin shouted, drawing the attention of several workmates outside the room. This was a nightmare, her and Fili had agreed that keeping their new relationship to themselves would be best and now everyone would know and she was going to be fired from a job she loved.

"You can't fire her uncle!" Fili moved in front of Bella, protecting her from his uncle's gaze. "Not only is that completely unacceptable as a reason to fire her, she is the best at what she does and the best person to take over from Gandalf next year. You fire her and she'll just get a job for Iron Hills and there is no way Dain will let her go… do you really want that?"

Thorin paused, glancing from his nephew to Bella. She shrunk down further behind Fili, resisting the urge to squeak in fear.

"Very well, She will not be fired. But this relationship does not have my approval. And if you give me one reason at all, you will be gone, miss Baggins, so you will need to work harder than ever. Because if you are late, or slow or so much as blink too much in a meeting, you will be finished." This time, as Thorin turned and left Bella did squeak. Fili turned around and squeezed her in a hug, murmuring reassurances in her ear.

* * *

Thorin knew what he was doing. Bella refused to believe this was innocent at all. She and Fili had been dating now for five months. And Thorin had lately been giving her more and more work to do which meant late nights and postponed dates. She was supposed to have met Fili's parents three times already but had needed to call and cancel because of her work load. She sighed as she worked through yet another proposal from one department or another. She should have known that Thorin hadn't meant it when he told her 'this is good experience if all works out between you and Fili then you need to know this stuff.'

The clock read 6.49, she would have to cancel again. Maybe she should send some flowers to Fili's mum, to apologise for the cancellations. 

Her phone rang and Fili's name flashed across the screen, she paused to admire the picture, it was the two of them, Fili was giving her a piggyback and she was kissing his cheek, Fili had a massive smile on his face. That had been weeks ago, the last date they had been on before her work started to pile up.

“Hey babe, I was about to call I…”

“ _ You have to cancel, again”  _ it was the same conversation they had every night, and much like she had every night, Bella cringed as she heard Fili try to hide his disappointment.

“I'm sorry, there's so much work” she sighed “I wish I didn’t have to cancel but I can’t not do my work.”

Fili let out a groan, that was new. Normally he would tell her it was all good and let her rant at him while mumbling the occasional sympathetic sentence.  _ “But you could Bella. You’ve done so much work, and stayed so late every day. You could leave now, and I could call mum and let her know we will be a bit late. I want you to meet my parents, and my brother.” _

“I can't Fili. I need to get this done, I can’t let your uncle fire me.” Bella felt tears prickle at her eyes but she swallowed them down.

_ “Bell, we haven't been on a date for five weeks, we haven’t seen each other for two weeks and you have cancelled dinner with my parents three times before this. It’s getting ridiculous”  _ he was angry, and she didn't blame him. But still, she had worked too hard to prove herself at this job, she couldn’t just fold.

“I’m not doing this on purpose! It’s not like I enjoy never seeing my boyfriend, but this is my job, it’s important.”

_ “We’re important too Bella. Or am I wrong, are we just kidding with this?”  _

“I’m sorry but unlike you I don't get to inherit a company, I didn't graduate and get handed a job that I can't get fired from. I need to work to keep this job.” more tears gathered and still she held them back. It was unfair of her to have brought this up, but Fili was getting angry and she was tired and it slipped. She couldn’t take it back now.

_ “Fuck, Bella this is bullshit. I love you but I'm not going to play second fiddle to your job.” _

Bella gasped as Fili hung up. They hadn’t said  _ I love you  _ before. She knew she loved Fili but hadn’t wanted to say it yet. She gave up on swallowing the tears back and let them fall. For the past two weeks she was lucky to get four hours of sleep a night and she was exhausted. At work she was running on adrenaline and caffeine and by the time she left work she was too tired to cook so she would pick up something on her way home. Then she would call Fili for a bit, only to start falling asleep mid conversation so he would say his goodbye. Only when she finally got to bed she couldn’t fall asleep because all she could think about was how she would have to do it all again the next day.

Bella allowed herself five minutes before she got up and washed her face. She still had at least another hour’s worth of work before she could leave.

* * *

She didn’t hear from Fili for the next two days. Several times she picked up her phone and considered calling him only to put it down again. Her previous four hours of sleep had now diminished to two hours and she found herself running out of concealer as she applied a liberal layer under her eyes.

She was getting ready for work on friday and staring at her phone, willing for it to ring with a call from Fili as he managed to do what she found she was too scared to do. She wanted to apologise, she wanted him to forgive her and tell her they would - not could,  _ would  _ \- work it out together, wanted to tell him she loved him, loved him more than anything, tell him work wasn’t more important than him.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she almost missed her phone actually ringing. For a moment she hoped, before a glance at the screen showed Ori’s name. 

“Hey Ori”

_ “Bella! You need to drive out to Lonely Mountain Mine now!”  _ the other woman's panicked voice came over the phone  _ “There's been a cave in, Bella, Fili was inspecting the mine…” _

Bella froze, barely registering Ori calling her name over the phone. Fili, stuck, cave in…. Finally Ori’s voice broke through and Bella through her suit jacket on before grabbing her work ID, bag and car keys “I’m on my way Ori.”

* * *

Lonely Mountain Mine was an hours drive from the office, from Bell’s apartment it was another fifteen minutes. She made the drive in 40 minutes.

There was an area of the mine roped off, leading away from the entrance and the office. Several people she recognised from work were there, helping in whatever way possible. Emergency services had been notified and several family members of the miners and news crews and people of the public were crowded behind the police barrier which was a further Kilometer behind the company’s roped off area.

Bella had to flash her work ID to be let through by the police, and the moment she was through she ran over to where Ori was standing with another woman, both looking over at the mine entrance which was currently collapsed.

“Ori!, what's happening, is he ok? Do we know anything?”

“Bella! No we don’t know much, currently Dwalin and Oin are trying to patch the emergency radio’s through but we don’t know if they are too deep for the signal or if their radios have been damaged.” Ori gave Bella a hug, ignoring the tears that were dripping onto her shoulder.

“Miss Baggins! Why are you not at the office right now? As I recall you have work piling up!” 

Bella turned to see Thorin stalking over, followed by a young man who looked quite similar. With a start Bella realised this must be Kili, and saddened at the thought that Fili would not be able to witness the meeting.

“Thor… Mr Durin, Ori called me, I came straight here, have you heard anything about Fili yet?”

“You should be at the office, Miss Baggins, in fact I must insist you return or face termination from the company.”

“Do it. Fire me. I don’t care. I need to be here for Fili.” Bella stared defiantly at her boss, watching as he glared at her before stalking off, muttering that she would not have a job to return to on monday.

Once he was gone, Bella let her shoulders drop and a small sob escaped her. Kili spoke up, and Bella almost jumped, having thought he had followed his uncle.

“Cheer up, once this is all over uncle will relax and realise he’s made a mistake. I’m Kili by the way, Fili’s brother. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you Bella.” and he stuck his arm out, grasping her hand and giving it a shake.

The other woman stepped forward “Hi dear, I’m Dis, Fili’s...”

“Mother.” Bella finished “I'm so sorry, both of you, about all the cancellations and I’ve been wanting to meet you but work has just… piled up.”

“All good, dear. I know just how demanding my brother can be.” Dis stepped forward and squeezed Bella into a hug before guiding the group over towards the office, where Dwalin, Thorin and Oin were talking to several SES officers.

* * *

It took three hours for radio contact to be made. During that time Bella had sat next to Kili and Ori, listening to them talking about anything and nothing.

“Last time we spoke we argued” she confessed at hour one, both had quieted and given her sympathetic smiles “That was tuesday night. I had to cancel dinner because of work. He was upset and I was tired and now he thinks I care about work more than him and he said he loves me but I didn’t say it back. What if I never get the chance.”

Neither one of them responded, which she was grateful for. She didn’t want them to. She just needed to get her thoughts out of her head, her fear of her chest. She sat and continued to listen to Kili and Ori for the next two hours, eyes focused on the entrance to the mine.

The voice came through amidst the static and Oin started to fiddle with the radio as Bella shot to her feet and all but ran over to where it was set up. As she fell in beside Dis they could finally make out Nori’s voice come through.

_ “Check. Check. If you can hear we’re all accounted for, Bifur had a knock to the head but he’s fine, a bit dazed but no concussion from what we can tell. Gloin hit his arm as he fell so we wrapped it and gave him a sling. There’s a few cuts and bruises but the emergency first aid kit has fixed those. Anyone there? Check. Check.”  _

It was Dwalin who answered after several moments of silence “Dwalin here. Good to hear you’re ok. We have SES here working on shifting rock. I'm gonna pass you to their manager, he wanted to speak with you all if we managed to make contact.”

Bella let out a sigh of relief. Fili was ok. 

It was another thirty minutes before the radio was handed back to Dwalin, at this point Nori informed them that of their three radios this was the only that hadn’t been damaged, the other miners having been working on the other two while Nori and Fili spoke with SES.

It was decided that they would pass the radio around to family members to speak with the trapped miners before they lost contact. Bella heard Fili announce he would go last, and while she knew it was because that was just the kind of person Fili was, it still hurt that he didn’t want to rush to speak with her. She shook that thought off, he had his mum and brother and uncle to talk with before her anyway.

For an hour Bella watched as various family members were brought over to speak to their loved ones over the radio. She was near enough that she could hear everyone but she was phasing it out to give them some privacy. Nori went second last, speaking quickly with Ori and Dwalin before handing over to Fili. Bella stood and made her way back to the radio, only to hear a curse.

_ “Shit, batteries are gonna go soon Fili. You only have a few minutes.” _

_ “Shit. hey guys.”  _ Fili called, and Bella smiled at the sound of his voice.  _ “I wish I could talk to you all but I guess not. Is Bella there?” _

Bella stepped forward, noticing Thorin’s look of shock at Fili’s words. He had likely expected it would be Kili that Fili asked for, or his mother, followed by Thorin himself. But Thorin clearly did not expect it to be Bella.

“Hey, babe, I'm here.” Bella spoke softly, kneeling down in front of the radio, reaching out towards it as though she could touch Fili.

_ “Bella. Honey, I’m so sorry I was so angry. It was stupid. I know you want to work hard and I know you love your job. I was being unfair. I love you.” _

She could vaguely hear Thorin muttering to his sister about how serious Fili appeared to be about her. But she focused on her boyfriend.

“No babe I'm sorry. Nothing is more important than us, I just, I was so focused on proving to Thorin that I was someone who was worthy enough to date you and I forgot to actually date you.” Bella let a few sobs out. Once he was out she wouldn’t let go of him for a whole day.

_ “Worthy of me? Bell, I’m not worthy of you. Love you are the most amazing person ever, you don’t need to prove anything” _

“I love you Fili” Bella whispered. No response. “Fili?” she sobbed “Fili, are you there? Fili?” Nothing. She was full on crying now, dimly she was aware of someone pulling her up and into the office before pressing a glass of water into her hands, but all she could focus on was that Fili was still stuck and she couldn’t talk to him anymore.

* * *

It was nearly dawn the next day when the SES officers informed them that they were almost through the rock fall. Dis and Thorin both let out sighs of relief as Kili helped Bella to her feet before Ori ran over and the two women hugged, behind them they could hear Dwalin on the phone updating whoever was on the other side of the phone.

Together they made their way to the mine entrance, only to stumble as the ground shook. With a gasp Bella looked towards the mine to see several rocks fall over the opening that had been made.

She could make out the SES workers scrambling to re-assess their strategy. Dis and Thorin were holding onto each other, as were Ori and Dwalin. OIin was moving closer to the rock fall, shouting something. But everything cut out. All Bella could hear was a ringing in her ears, her vision tunneled as she stared at the rocks and her knees hit the ground. They had been so close. Dimly she was aware of Kili trying to speak to her but all she could focus on was the fear running through her.

“..lla! Bella!” the sound snapped back and everything came into focus. Her cheeks were wet. Bella reached up and felt her face, realising she was crying. Kili was in front of her, gripping her shoulders.

“Ki..Kili?”

“Yeah, Bella, it’s me. Breathe, Bella, breathe.”

“Sorry. This is ridiculous. He’s your brother.” Bella turned to face Dis and Thorin “and your son, and your nephew.”

“It’s fine sweetie. I’ve had my father, my grandfather, husband and both my brothers go into mines and I’ve had to sit through several collapses. We all have. This is your first and you and Fili have a new relationship and you’ve been having a hard time lately.” Dis gently pushed her son out of the way, giving Bella a hug as she pulled her to her feet.

Slowly Dis lead Bella back towards the office as the others moved towards the workers. “Maybe you should get some sleep Bella, you’ve been here for nearly 24 hours and haven’t slept a wink. Plus Fili told me you’ve been working late at the office for the last few weeks. Sleep. If something happens I’ll wake you up.”

“Thanks Dis, I don’t know why I just… well you know. I’ve just, work has been so busy and Fili was upset that I kept putting us off for work and we fought and I just, I don’t know if he’s ok now and I just wish I had spent more time with him.” Bella sighed, blinking away tears “If I had known this was going to happen then I would have told Thorin that I couldn’t take on that extra work….. I’m sorry, Dis, I… I shouldn’t be complaining to you, you’ve been such a comfort today, well yesterday really.” 

Dis smiled and gave Bella another hug “It’s fine, take a rest and I promise, the moment we hear anything I will let you know.”

  
  


* * *

Bella woke to the sounds of someone moving about in the office, slowly she stretched as she opened her eyes to see Ori making some tea. A quick glance at the clock told Bella she had slept for four hours and it was nearing 9.00 on saturday morning.

“Any tea for me?”

“Bella! You’re awake. Of course there’s some for you. How was your sleep?” Ori gave Bella a smile as she poured the two mugs out and placed them on the small table that the miners used for breaks.

Bella moved over and sat with the other female “honestly, sleep wasn’t great, I just, I wish I knew he was ok.”

Ori reached out and squeezed her hand, the two taking comfort from each other. “Sorry Ori, I know you’re worried about your brother too. I feel horrible for breaking down when everyone else has someone in there they are worried about.”

“It’s fine Bella. Really, as scary as it is we’ve all sat through an accident or collapse at a mine before, and that second collapse scared us but you’ve barely slept for the past couple of weeks, you’re physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. We all understand.” Ori gave Bella a smirk “you should have heard the way Dis was yelling at Thorin after she found out about the work load he gave you. It was amazing, she threatened to castrate him and everything. Told him if something happened to Fili that he would have to live knowing that he was the reason you lost time with your boyfriend.”

“Do you think something has happened?”

“I think that everything will be ok.”

* * *

Bella was sitting outside with Dis and Ori an hour later when Oin told them the work was nearly done on the entrance, with temporary yet stable support beams in place as extra precaution.

Bella was hungry, she hadn’t eaten anything other than an apple since she had arrive the morning before. Still she couldn’t bring herself to eat. The entrance was clear but they had no idea about collapse anywhere else in the mine, or if there was further damage done since the SES officers had communicated with the trapped miners. 

Following everyone to the entrance she found herself tensing, waiting for another collapse, letting out her breath when it didn’t come.

After a few minutes a SES worker came out to inform them that they had some rock to clear but it would only take a couple of hours since it wasn’t supporting anything. They would still be putting support beams through the mine tunnel to be safe, but things should go smoothly from there.

“How far down are the miners, how much more rock needs to be cleared?” Dis asked, hope flitting across her face.

“Judging by the fact that we did manage to make radio contact with them after the first collapse they can't be much further past this rock fall. Since the fall we’re currently clearing is loose and doesn’t go all the way to the roof of the tunnel we will be sending workers through as soon as we can get them safely across. Their job will be to scout ahead. My guess is there is probably another rock fall within the next kilometer of tunnel, any further and the radio signals wouldn’t have come through. All going well they could be out in the next six hours.” With a quick nod to Thorin the worker headed back into the mine, shouting orders at several workers nearby.

They all stood there for two hours, occasional conversation drifting between them but mostly they were just watching the workers hurrying in and out of the tunnel. Thorin was on the phone, likely to the media and PR departmentS. He had been giving them updates on the recovery process as soon as he could, Dis had told Bella that work distracted Thorin from the worry. The departments needed to know so that they could update the media and their employee’s and customers and Bella understood that, if she had gone into the office yesterday she likely would have been asked to help out with contacting the customers. Still privately Bella thought he could be a bit less closed off, especially since even she could tell that Kili was slowly loosing his energy. The poor boy (she was only a year older than him but he was still a boy) had gone from comforting his mother and Bella and insisting that Fili and the others would be fine to now huddling in on himself and chewing nervously on his lip. Last time Thorin’s phone had rung Kili had glared at his uncle as he answered.

Oin and Dwalin moved over to where one of the SES managers was waving them over and Bella watched them for several minutes before they made their way back to the silent group.

“They managed to get some workers over the rock fall, they found another fall a few meters down the track around the bend. It’s quite loose but still holding a few lode bearing rocks in place but the miners are definitely behind it. They managed to shift a couple of rocks to communicate with the miners so they are going to look at widening the opening and they are hoping to get their help with shifting the rest of the rocks, help quicken the process.” Dwalin informed them, pulling Ori into a hug as she let out a sob of relief.

“Unfortunately” Oin continued, causing fear to shoot through Bella “because of the sudden second collapse we had this morning and because they are working in the mine tunnel they have called a block on communication with us. They don’t want to risk getting hopes up in case of another collapse and they don’t want to be informing anyone of injuries before medical staff examine the miners.”

Bella gave everyone a small smile before heading back to the office. She felt someone fall into step beside her and she looked up, expecting to see Ori. It was Thorin.

“Miss Baggins, I am sorry, about what I said yesterday, you still have your job waiting for you. It was unfair of me to expect you to leave here when I did not expect it of myself. And it was cruel of me to overload your work to keep you from my nephew. I cannot give you any reason or explanation as to why I have treated you so poorly other than I am unused to being spoken back to, and I am unused to being wrong. You stood up against me the first time we met and you proved me wrong not only in regards to your advertising pitch but also in your ability and skill as an employee.” Here Thorin gave Bella a soft smile “Your Godfather chose his replacement well, I think.”

Bella watched as her boss walked back towards his family, once again talking on the phone. She did not know what to think, she was too exhausted to really think anyway, but now, her brain felt like it had fried.

Shaking her head Bella started back to the office, intent on making everyone some tea while they waited.

* * *

When the clock ticked over to 5.36 pm Bella and Ori both looked up towards the entrance of the mine. They could make out some movement near the entrance and they could hear some of the men shouting.

Bella could feel Dis, Kili, Thorin, Dwalin and Oin moving in around her and Ori as they all watched and waited.

Nori was the first one out, his sister tearing off towards him, followed closely by Dwalin. As much as he claimed to dislike his future brother-in-law Bella knew that Dwalin had been just as worried about him as Ori had been. Several more workers came out, Oin reunited with his brother Gloin, carefully looking over the arm he had banged.

Fili was the last of the miners out. He looked fine. Tired and covered in dust, but fine. Bella hung back family to greet him first. She smiled as he and Kili squeezed the life out of each other before both Dis and Thorin joined, the sounds of relieved laughter floating through the air. The Fili spotted her. He stepped away from his family, taking one step in Bella’s direction. Then he took a second. For a moment he paused before both Bella and Fili ran at each other, colliding in a hug that had Fili picking Bella up to spin her around.

“I missed you” Bella whispered as Fili placed her down, squeezing him in a hug. He was here, safe, with her.

“I love you Bella. I’ve been waiting to say it since the radio cut off. Well actually I’ve been wanting to say it ever since our first date, when you burnt the brownies.”

“Bella beamed “I love you too, ever since you told me that your proudest accomplishment was dying your uncle’s hair pink.”

And slowly she leaned in and kissed the man she loved. He was covered in dust, they both hadnt showered in nearly 36 hours, her clothes were rumpled and her make up smudged. But it was still the greatest kiss Bella had ever had.

* * *

Bella smiled as she pulled into the driveway of the house she and Fili had recently moved into, after the year they had been through together the couple had been ready to spend every moment they could together. The moment she opened the door Bella was hit with the sound of laughter. Thorin was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, laughing at someone inside the kitchen. Bella hung her jacket up and moved into the kitchen, inside Dis was laughing at the stove as she cooked up pasta for dinner. 

Looking over to her boyfriend Bella could see what was so funny. Kili and Fili both had a piece of uncooked spaghetti and were mock sword fighting with them. As she watched Kili managed to break his brother’s spaghetti in half and then mock a thrust into his stomach. 

Bella let out a laugh as Fili gave a dramatic groan and fell to the ground.

“Ugh Kee you’ve killed me!”

“Sorry brother but there can only be one!”

Fili looked over at Bella, smiling at her briefly before going back to ‘dying’ “Bella my love, never forget me and please avenge me!”

Playing along Bella picked up some spaghetti and moved over to the two brothers “I shall fight your brother as revenge for taking your life my love!”

And Bella lunged forward, her spaghetti sword flashing at Kili. Unfortunately Kili managed to dodge and stab at Bella’s neck while grabbing her ‘sword’ from her hand.

Bella let out a yell and dropped down next to her boyfriend, giving him a kiss she sighed “thus with a kiss I die.”

Kili let out a laugh, helping Bella off the ground before pulling his brother up. As Bella and Fili greeted each other properly both Dis and Thorin clapped at the performance they had just witnessed.

“Welcome home Bell, I missed you.” Fili said, pulling Bella close.

“I missed you too, sweetheart” Bella gave her boyfriend another kiss before a groan from Kili distracted them.

“You guys literally saw each other when you left for work this morning, then again at lunch. And get a room, my innocent eyes don’t need to see my brother trying to suck Bella’s face off.” Kili laughed as he pushed his brother away from Bella, dramatically waving his arms around.

The small group laughed as they all moved into the dining room and sat down for dinner. With a small sigh Bella looked over at her boyfriend and rested her hand on her stomach, they had news to share with their family, and she couldn’t wait.

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't know how mines work or what the rescue procedures are or how long it takes - just in case you couldn't tell....


End file.
